I finally locked picture on Andrew Jackson for The History Channel. Locked picture, in case you don’t know, means that I am done editing the video. The show is cut to the exact timing required by the network. In case you are wondering what my 90-min timeline looks like, here it is:

When I cut the show, I don’t work on one big timeline like this. I break up the show by Act…so the computer doesn’t slow down…ah but I am going into details that I cover in my tutorial DVD. Click on the link on the right to order that. (shameless sales plug)

Now I have to prep it for audio sweetening…mixing. For this I will send the audio Act by Act to the mixer. When he is done I’ll import his mix, sync it to my picture and verify that sync doesn’t drift, then output it to tape.

I also am beginning the color correction phase. For this I will be using Colorista by Red Giant Software. I found that it handles extreme changes in color better. And the ability to have “secondaries” where I can adjust small areas of the picture is also a huge plus. I’ll have to go into that in more detail later….giving examples of each. Well, Stu, the author of this plugin, already did. But when I am done I’ll have to give a detailed explaination of my impressions of it.

OK…I have a LOT of clips to color correct…as you can see. I gotta get back.

Comments

B-Scene Films

June 14th, 2007 at 8:05 AM

Nice to see a little insight into your process on a big show like this, Shane. Recently, The DP Buzz was talking about working at home setups and your name came up. It would be really cool if you could describe your setup at home for the rest of us.

Shane Ross

June 14th, 2007 at 8:08 AM

Which Buzz? I wanna listen to that.

I’ll get a picture or two and show you….and describe what is in the photo.

B-Scene Films

June 14th, 2007 at 12:27 PM

It was last Thursday’s Buzz. So the current one – last segment, Buzz in Depth. Philip was defending his position – or revising it on using color in a dedicated room with control surface etc.

Duke

June 14th, 2007 at 3:21 PM

I just snagged the Blood Diamond documentary you worked on from the screeners pile at work. And actually, just watched the film Blood Diamond yesterday. So this is my Africa week. I suppose I’ll add Invisible Children to my list as well.

I like that you posted a picture of your sequence. It’s always interesting to see how others work. Although, It looks like every other sequence, just longer I suppose.

AndrewK

June 15th, 2007 at 10:25 AM

Shane,

On average low does it take to you to color correct a show like this?

In regards to your shameless plug… I just started watching the DVD the other day and when it started on the section about naming clips I was like, “No, Shane, not slashes in file names!” Of course right after that the DVD said never use slashes in file names and I breathed a sigh of relief. I’m a bit old school when it comes to naming conventions though and I only use letters, numbers, and underscores be it for FCP clips or HDDs.

Shane Ross

June 15th, 2007 at 11:18 AM

B-scene…I’ll have to blog about that. Because I am NOT in a gray room with the proper florescent lighting. And it still looks good. Walls are lined with bookshelves, and the back wall is a sliding glass door with tan drapes. Yeah…that’s something to blog about.

Duke…tell whoever received those to VOTE FOR BLOOD DIAMONDS! For editing.

Andrew…it takes between 3 days and a week for a 90 min show. It depend on how many shots there are. They wanted this very cutty, so this will take a week.

And yes, about the “/” in the names. I find my self doing that because Avid doesn’t care about that symbol…and I worked on an Avid for years. I still catch myself doing it…and I did it in the tutorial. BUT…I caught myself and pointed out that error on the DVD.